1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of printers, and in particular to systems and methods for the automatic configuration of printers.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer printers, which are increasingly used for both business and personal applications, are extremely configurable and offer a variety of customization possibilities. Users often customize printers by changing printer configuration settings using a user interface. The user interface may be associated with a print console, print controller, or provided on the user's computer through a print driver. The printer may be customized to suit individual preferences and/or tailored to the task at hand.
The plethora of print options provided to users also creates a raft of complexities. Users are often confused by the large number of options provided, or by the impact of one or more settings on print speed and quality, and by the terminology used to describe the various options. Thus, despite the proliferation of user-friendly interfaces and help-menus, the proper configuration of printers often proves daunting to everyday users. Indeed, the wide availability and frequent use of printers do not appear to have alleviated these problems.
Printer manufactures have responded to these challenges by providing task-based configuration for printers. For example, a user may select one of various printing modes on a printer such as a “draft mode,” which may increase throughput and conserve toner or ink, but at the cost of relatively lower quality output. In addition, a “photo mode,” a “default mode,” and various other printing modes may be provided. Each printing mode is typically associated with a printer configuration setting that comprises a set of predefined values for one or more configurable operational parameters associated with the printer. Thus, for example, when a user selects “draft mode”—a printer may be configured to print double-sided, monochrome copies at a lower print resolution such as 150 dots per inch (“dpi”).
However, print quality is also dependent to a large extent on generic physical characteristics of the print medium used. The thickness of the print media, its translucency, reflectivity, and other physical properties impact the quality of print output. Accordingly, printer configuration must also be changed based on the type of print media being used. Because print media is typically mass-produced individual variations in media characteristics will be minimal and can be ignored. Therefore, many physical media characteristics may be treated as generic for a particular media product and a printer may be configured appropriately, when that media product is used.
Unfortunately, such configuration changes are not always easy for users to make. Moreover, given the many types of print media available, selecting the right configuration settings may involve a lot of trial and error leading to a waste of time and resources. Moreover, there is no easy way for a user to determine and/or specify the characteristics of the print media used so that an optimal configuration setting can be determined. Finally, because modern office printers may have multiple input trays and the input trays may contain different media types, there is no easy mechanism to specify printer configuration settings corresponding to the particular print media product in each input tray.
Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods to automatically configure printers for optimal performance that accounts for generic physical characteristics of print media used in printers.